Writing yarn 2: World Building

World-building doesn’t start in your head, it starts in your story.

1. Inspiration

This one sounds probably lame, but is actually important. By inspiration I mean anything that will give you an idea how your world could look like if you’re just starting out. Some writers will tell you that you need the story, first, but I think that on the contrary, the setting helps you create your story, and you should have your world, first.

Something that might be inspiring could be books that show ancient maps, as this will inspire you when you start drawing maps for your world, and I recommend that you read books on travelling, and books featuring interesting landscapes.

2. Concept

You don’t need to have your story yet, but once you have an idea how your world could look like, it’s time for thinking about the context. Is your world a futuristic civilisation on a planet in another constellation? A people of hunters living in a rainforest? Is your story in the fantasy or sci-fi genre, or something between? Is it a space opera with planets, or a city where only wizards live?

Before you start building your setting, think about the context. World-building doesn’t start in your head, it starts in your story.

3. Physics

It’s getting scientific, now. If you read my book, you might know that I’ve spent months researching how an exoplanet could look like before writing the story. I don’t say you have to spend months researching, but I am convinced that if your world is scientifically well-researched, it might help your story. So, if I wanted a planet to be really realistic, I’d talk to scientists. I’d create a list with questions you could use:

1. How large is the planet? It will have an impact on how much your characters would weigh on the planet, and how the people on that planet look.

2. Does it orbit a sun? Or several? How many? If the sun is a Blue Giant and incredibly hot, but you want a cold climate, the planet would need to be far away from its sun.

3. What is the planet composed of? Stone? Gas?

4. How tectonically active is the planet and how do the tectonics work?

5. What is the atmosphere composed of? If the atmosphere on a planet contains more oxygen, that might lead to a higher danger of fires, so this could have an impact on the way your citizens build their cities.

6. How many earth-years is a year? How long does it take the planet to orbit round its sun? (You can find that out if you know the mass of the planet and the sun, and the distance)

7. How is the axis of the planet? Is it tilted like on the Earth? Your decision will impact the climate of the planet (tilted: seasons, straight: no seasons, more extreme climate zones).

8. How is the climate?

9. Does the planet have any moons? Artificial stations in the orbit? The moons are important as they could affect your climate. So if you have three moons, as in one of my stories, your characters might witness a good deal of floods.

Once you know the characteristics of your planet, you can start defining the land masses. The characteristics you have found out before will now help you create the lands.

4. Lands

After analyzing your scientific characteristics of the planet, you can start drawing your maps. When drawing the outlines of your land masses, consult your list to help you. Your planet is rather large and does have more than one moon? Your outlines will look jagged and torn, and there may be erosion. Your planet is far away from its sun, but does have more than one moon? Your planet may be known for its ferocious storms. It’s fiction after all, and although many readers like realistic worlds, it should still be fun!

Also think about where your cities are, if there are rivers, where the climate zones are. If you have a very advanced species, you may put your capital into an arid, dry plain with no soil to grow food, because you could presume that an advanced civilization could likely grow their food in farms within the city. If your world is medieval, you might want to think if the setting where you have put the city is realistic.

5. People

You may have already thought about what kind of species you want to write about in your book. If not, then you can create them based on the characteristics of your planet and your setting.

6. Environment

Are there animals on your planet? If no, then your characters probably won’t be eating meat every week. Once you know what the climate is like, you also can start defining what kind of life the planet supports.

7. Culture

The culture of your civilization will affect your story. It might define whether your civilisation is peaceful, belligerent, and their language. You’ll need to figure out:

Languages

What language does your civilization speak? Do they have any writing system?

Music

What kind of music do your civilizations have? If they have music at all.

Entertainment

Entertainment and culture are intertwined, so you will have to figure our what sort of entertainment exists on your planet. Note that if you make up some kind of dance you will have to explain how that dance evolved, and it might help if you know what kind of music your civilization does have.

Clothing

What are people wearing in your setting? You will have to decide what kind of climate your civilization lives in before you decide on their clothing.

Buildings

Buildings can tell you whether a civilization likes embellishment, or if they don’t care about things like that.

Tradition

What kind of tradition does your civilization have? Are they only interested into progress, and don’t care about tradition?

Etiquette

What is the etiquette in your society, if you’d have to advise someone who wants to travel to your fictional planet or world, what would you tell them not to do?

8. Languages

Before you can make up your languages, you should have defined your species. The culture will affect your language, and both should merge so that it looks realistic.

You have to know a few things:

1. Do your species talk? Do they have a body at all, or are they beings made of fog? Are they colonial organisms? If you know this, write it down, because the way the species communicates will affect the language.

2. How old is the civilisation? The older the species, the more complex the language will be. A very ancient civilization might have altered its language innumerable times, because languages change.

3. Do your people have hands? Do they have writing? Because then you will have to invent a writing system, too!

4. Find inspiration from languages from the Earth. I’m not telling you that you have to learn new languages just for inspiration, but learning some words and a bit of grammar might already help, because it helps you understand the way languages work.

5. The language should merge with the culture. This will make your language look more convincing.

Hope this guide will help you create your own world and let me know if you have created one!